Perspectives S36 / Ep13 The importance of voting in every election

Throughout the country, we’ve seen anti-voter legislation, political violence, and targeted misinformation. All of this is meant to create deliberate barriers to participating in our electoral process. The Leadership Conference wants to empower people, especially young people of color, to be the change they want to see in the system because we know that for our democracy to work for all of us, it must include us all. And Still I Vote (ASIV) is a campaign of The Leadership Conference Education Fund that recognizes when we wield our power at the ballot box, we can deliver for our communities. The goal of the ASIV campaign is to engage, educate, and increase civic participation so we can protect our freedoms and strengthen our democracy. One of the ways we are failing as a democracy is our criminal-legal system, which is plagued with inequities. The objective of Vision for Justice (V4J) is to provide specific information about how to improve the criminal-legal system, to help hold our elected leaders accountable, and to amplify the urgent need for a new paradigm for public safety. For there to be justice for all, changes such as passing sentencing reform, improving prison conditions, and helping formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into society must occur to create a system that acknowledges the humanity of all people.